The Order of the Books of the New Testament

Abstract

"This article follows up two earlier articles on the order of the biblical books in the Hebrew and Greek arrangements of the OT canon.1 The assumption behind all three studies is that the placement or location of a biblical book relative to other books influences a reader’s view of the book. The present study deals with the location of the books of the NT, with “location” defined as physical propinquity in the anthology of Scripture.2 Readerly habit views enjambment as a clue that significant relations are to be discerned between a particular book and its neighbors in the library of canonical books. The reader presumes that material that is juxtaposed is related in some way in meaning, and this habit of readers forms the basis of the following analysis. The assumption is that a book is more closely related to books next to it or nearby, and less closely related to books placed far from it. This study is not a historical investigation into the formation of the canon of the NT,3 but an exploration of the hermeneutical implications of the order of biblical books, with book order viewed as an aspect of the paratext of Christian Scripture"